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Saturday, February 15, 2014

Five of the Germans' 12 overall medals and four of their golds have come in the luge. Otherwise, Germany has scored a couple of medals in alpine skiing and one each in biathlon, cross-country skiing, figure skating, Nordic combined and ski jumping.

2. Switzerland 5, 1, 1

A couple of golds each in alpine and cross-country skiing and one in snowboarding have Switzerland on track for its best-ever Olympic Winter Games medals-table performance. The Swiss have also earned a silver in biathlon and a bronze in alpine skiing.

3. Canada 4, 5, 2

Freestyle skiing has been Canada's area of dominance: three gold, two silver and one bronze. The other Canadian gold was in short-track skating. There also have been a couple of silvers in figure skating and one in speed skating and a bronze in snowboard.

4. Netherlands 4, 3, 6

The Dutch have a bronze in short track skating. Other than that, it has been a lackluster Olympics for the Netherlands … oh, except the speed skaters have four gold, three silver and five bronze.

4. Norway 4, 3, 6

Cross-country skiing is the Norwegians' thing: three gold, one silver, three bronze. The biathlon (cross-country skiing with guns) has yielded a gold and silver, too, for Norway. Otherwise, there's a silver in snowboard and a bronze each in alpine skiing (cross-country skiing, only the country is sloped downward), Nordic combined (cross-country skiing, plus ski jumping) and ski jumping.

4. United States 4, 3, 6

Five of Team USA's medals (including one of the golds) have been in freestyle skiing; four (including the other three golds) have been in snowboarding. The other medals have come in skeleton (silver), alpine skiing (bronze), figure skating (bronze) and luge (bronze).

7. Russian Federation 3, 6, 5

Good medal distribution for the home team: three (and two gold) in figure skating, three (and one gold) in short track, two in biathlon, two in luge, two in speed skating, one in freestyle skiing and one in skeleton.

8. China 3, 2, 0

The Chinese have scored two gold medals and a silver in short track, a gold in speed skating and a silver in freestyle skiing.

9. Belarus 3, 0, 1

Belarus has two golds and a bronze in biathlon and a gold in freestyle skiing. Surely, Darya Domracheva--who has two golds in her two biathlon events so far in Sochi, with two to go--must be a national sports hero.

10. Austria 2, 4, 1

Four of the medals (two gold, a silver and a bronze) have come in alpine skiing, and then the Austrians have a silver each in biathlon, luge and ski jumping.

Matt Antoine, a 28-year-old from Prairie du Chien, Wis., won bronze in the men's skeleton today. I would not have guessed the United States as the dominant Olympics skeleton power of all time, but Team USA is. Antoine's bronze in his first Winter Games extends the Americans' lead in all-time medals in the event to two (eight to six) over Great Britain.

Martins Dukurs, a 28-year-old from Latvia, won his second-straight silver. Alexander Tretiakov, a 28-year-old from Russia who won bronze at Vancouver 2010, leapfrogged Dukurs for the gold. The NBC color commentator said that Tretiakov recorded the same "start" time in each of his four runs during the event, and each time the 4.47 seconds ranked as the fastest start recorded by any of the competitors in the event.

John Daly, a 28-year-old from Queens, N.Y., entered the fourth and final run in fourth position, but, as he jumped onto his sled at the end of his start, Daly nearly scooted off the opposite side. His sled veered back and forth into the walls of the track. The NBC commentator immediately noted that Daly's threat to claim a medal was over, and then we watched Daly slide out his run for a pretty long 50 seconds.

Kamil Stoch, a 26-year-old from Poland, won his second gold medal of the Sochi Games today--in men's long hill ski jumping.

Noriaki Kasai, a 41-year-old from Japan, won silver. Kasai has competed in every Winter Games since Albertville 1992, and he was part of a team silver at Lillehammer 1994--but this was his first-ever individual medal in his seventh Olympics.